Oh boy. This morning, Nintendo has shown the newest info of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in their newest Direct. There was so much info that it will take awhile to get through it all. I do want to mention that we here at RPGFan still cover RPGs, and we are only covering Smash due to the insane number of RPG characters joining the roster. Due to that, we will only cover the RPG parts of the Direct... though just about every part of today's announcement has RPG stuff in it, so we are good. Let's get right to it!

Oh, yeah. You read that right. Castlevania is coming to Smash Bros. Simon Belmont joins the fray with his signature whip, axe, holy water, and cross. Coming with him is the legendary Dracula's Castle stage with fan favorite bosses from the Castlevania series including Dracula himself. Joining as an echo fighter, Richter Belmont crosses over. His attacks are similar but his voices and animations are different from his relative. Last but not least, the son of Dracula, Alucard joins as an assist trophy. True to Castlevania lore, his attacks mimic his style from Symphony of the Night and he won't be easy to kill, even as an assist trophy.

Next on the list are the two Echo Fighters that promise to heat things up. Finally getting his time, Chrom from Fire Emblem Awakening is here to change his fate. He possesses a combination of moves, taking cues from Marth, Roy, and Ike, though it seems he will be an Echo of Roy officially. The next character has a bit of a dark side with the introduction of Dark Samus from Metroid Prime 3 as Samus's Echo Fighter. Too bad she isn't from an RPG, or else I could talk about her more. At least we still have Chrom.

Besides Dracula's Castle, other favorite stages are rejoining from past games with a brand new look. Stages from the N64 version will keep their nostalgic look with only the slightest of touch-ups to make them more modern. A new mode called stage merge was also introduced which allows players to pick two stages and have them switch in between them mid-battle, allowing for a terrain change that could spice up the match. Finally, it has been officially confirmed that stage hazards can be toggled on and off. With that being said, here's a full list of the stages shown off in the direct:

• Dracula's Castle (Castlevania)


• Great Bay (LOZ: Majora's Mask)


• Shadow Moses Island (Metal Gear Solid)


• Living Room (Nintendogs)


• Guar Plain (Xenoblade Chronicles)


• Figure-8 Circuit (Mario Kart)


• Flat Zone X (Game & Watch)


• Pokemon Stadium (Pokemon)


• Garden of Hope (Pikmin)


• Brinstar Depths (Metroid)


• Summit (Ice Climbers)


• Unova Pokemon League (Pokemon)


• Magicant (Earthbound)


• Gamer (Warioware)


• Final Destination (Smash Bros)


• New Donk City Hall (Super Mario Odyssey)


• Fountain of Dreams (Kirby)


• Jungle Japes (Donkey Kong)


• Saffron City (Pokemon)


• Hyrule Castle (Zelda)


• Dream Land (Kirby)


• Kongo Jungle (Donkey Kong)

With roughly 900 songs, there are plenty to choose as you fight with your favorite characters. Unlike previous games where the songs were grouped by stage, the songs are now grouped by franchise. As long as you are playing on a stage from that franchise, all music from it can be played on that stage. Not only that, but you can also make your own playlists and be able to play them even when the switch's screen is off in Handheld mode.

During the Direct, many new items, Pokémon and Assist Trophies were revealed. Here is the full list of all of them.

Items:

• Banana Gun: Looks like a banana… fires one powerful "bullet"


• Killing Edge: When it glows, its power intensifies


• Bomber: Lift it up and this powerful bomb will blow


• Death's Scythe: Instantly KO fighters who are badly damaged


• Staff: It's power increases the farther you are from your target


• Ramblin' Evil Mushroom: Reverse the opponent's controls


• Rage Blaster: The higher your damage percentage, the stronger it gets

Pokemon:

• Alolan Exeggutor


• Abra


• Solgaleo


• Lunala


• Mimikyu


• Pyukumuku


• Vulpix


• Alolan Vulpix


• Marshadow


• Ditto

Assist Trophies:

• Alucard (Castlevania)


• Zero (Megaman X)


• Knuckles (Sonic)


• Krystal (Star Fox)


• Klaptrap (Donkey Kong)


• Kapp'n (Animal Crossing)


• Chef Kawasaki (Kirby)


• Grey Fox (Metal Gear Solid)


• Nikki (Mii)


• Shovel Knight (Shovel Knight)


• Moon (LOZ: Majora's Mask)

The final assist trophy shown and the boss of an unnamed stage, Rathalos from Monster Hunter arrives to burn the ground. Being the first character to be both a boss and an assist trophy, he is a force to be reckoned with regardless. As mentioned, there seems to be a new stage based on Monster Hunter where Rathalos roams, all we saw was a glimpse though. More info should be available in the future.

Not only did we see a glimpse at classic mode, but there are also some new multiplayer modes too. Smackdown is where you fight using all unlocked characters in a free-for all but after you used a character once, it is banned for the rest of the matches. Squad Strike is a 3v3 or 5v5 battle where players can use multiple different characters to fight against each other in one v one matches, similar to the Crew battles in normal competitive smash. Tourney mode is also coming back.

New rules were also introduced. Fan favorite Stamina mode is now available as one of the main battle options alongside time, stock, and coin. Stage selection is also comes first before selecting characters to add a new factor when deciding your character. In sudden death, the screen will now zoom in to fast forward to the end of the match. Finally, the Final Smash meter is introduced. When turned on, players can charge their final smash and unleash a weaker version of it against foes. Multiple final smashes can't be used at the same time, so time them to victory.

Lastly, the main menu was shown and a new mode was teased in the bottom right corner. It was blurred, but you know it won't take gamers long to figure out what it is. Until then, we can only guess what is going through Sakurai's mind.

Last but not least, King K. Rool from Donkey Kong Country makes his arrival in style. Using a moveset that is familiar to players of Donkey Kong Country 2, 3, and DK 64, people who have been clammering for him should now be satisfied.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will release worldwide on Switch on December 7th of this year. Once again, I'd like to issue a reminder that we will only be covering the game if RPG characters are shown in the news. That being said, please check out our gallery for new screenshots.

• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Screenshots